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The dispute between the east coast and west coast branches of the Writers Guild has spilled into the opinion pages of the LAT, with WGA East member Walter Bernstein taking his case to the public to explain what's at stake for the Guild and to delineate the differences between the warring factions:

There are real differences between the two guilds. Some are the result of geography. Los Angeles is a company town. New York is not. Writers in the West are more tightly bound to the industry; there is often no distinction between the social and the business life. It can make for a different sensibility.

We're glad to see that even though the piece liberally applies a war metaphor to their disagreements, Bernstein doesn't resort to scorched-earth tactics. For example, he notes the West's "different sensibility," when he easily could have gratuitously escalated the conflict by calling his Left Coast brethren "studio-fellating lot-monkeys." Let's see if the WGA West shows the same kind of restraint in their inevitable response.